IMC is appending "ML" characters to switch commands

[A.W.R]

Hi,

We are experiencing a bit of a strange issue with our IMC. 

When we deploy a configuration from IMC for a switch the deployment fails. When we check the log file it appears that IMC is appending the "ML" characters to the commands. Please extract from the log file example below:-

(C) Copyright 2018 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
RESTRICTED RIGHTS LEGEND
Confidential computer software. Valid license from Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Development LP required for possession, use or copying. Consistent with FAR
12.211 and 12.212, Commercial Computer Software, Computer Software
Documentation, and Technical Data for Commercial Items are licensed to the
U.S. Government under vendor's standard commercial license.

Press any key to continue
Your previous successful login (as manager) was on 1990-01-01 00:13:02
from 172.30.86.93
HP-2530-24G-PoEP# enableML
Invalid input: enable
HP-2530-24G-PoEP# no pageML
HP-2530-24G-PoEP# terminal width 1920ML

HP-2530-24G-PoEP# copy tftp startup-config 172.30.86.93 31_20200317172425__ARUBA_Test_LAB.cfgML
Device may be rebooted, do you want to continue [y/n]? yML
TFTP download in progress.
Error in sending rq message. Exceeded 5 retransmits.
000M Peer unreachable.
HP-2530-24G-PoEP#

If anybody can advise we would really appreciate  the advice.

Kind regards

Andrew

[jguse]

Hello Andrew,

The "ML" append is a cosmetic issue we've seen in the logs on the new version - but it doesn't append those characters to the actual commands it runs. If it did, you would see 'Invalid input' as a response from the switch in the logs.

In your case though, the issue appears to be with your switch reaching iMC's TFTP server:

TFTP download in progress.
Error in sending rq message. Exceeded 5 retransmits.
000M Peer unreachable.

Ensure there isn't a firewall or something blocking the TFTP traffic, iMC's TFTP server is running (process is tftpserver.exe), and that it is actually reachable from the switch.

You can try executing the command manually as well and see if that works:

copy tftp startup-config 172.30.86.93 31_20200317172425__ARUBA_Test_LAB.cfg

Hope that helps.

[A.W.R]

Thank you for your response. We will try this, but in the log file there is the error:-

HP-2530-24G-PoEP# enableML
Invalid input: enable

Is this not related to the ML characters?

[jguse]

Hello,

The "Invalid input: enable" here is referring to iMC's scripts running the 'enable' command even though they are already at the "enable prompt' (or manager prompt) indicated by the # symbol on the device. It's done in case the device login provided to iMC actually logs into the operator prompt ( > symbol) instead, which would not provide sufficient access to run the 'copy run tftp' and other commands for backups etc.

[A.W.R]

Hi,

If we issue the commands manually they work correctly.

I can ping the IMC server from the switch, Prior to pushing configs I have imported the switch in question and collecting SNMP events from the switch. So there is definitely communication between IMC and the switch.

It is our beleif that IMC is adding ML and then it doesn’t work as there is no file with a name that ends with ML.

We can ping the IMC server from the switch, Prior to pushing configs we imported the switch in question and collecting SNMP events from the switch. So there is definitely communication between IMC and the switch.

[jguse]

Hello,

If iMC was actually appending ML characters to every command, nothing related to config backup/restore etc. would work and we'd be aware of such an issue. The error shown in your case would also not be "Peer unreachable" but "Invalid input".

If you look up the peer unreachable error you'll find a number of other posts where the issue was that the tftp server wasn't running on the system, or a firewall blocked the port, or some other TFTP server application was running and blocking with iMC's.

You mentioned the commands work when issued manually - but did you test them with iMC's TFTP server? To do so, you should put the file you want to test with into the iMC\server\tmp directory, as that's its TFTP root.